Put Grandma’s Christmas Specialties In A TasteBook

Wondering what to do with Grandma's special box of Christmas cookie recipes you only break into once a year? Have a knack for holiday dinner parties (or just any time dinner parties), but don't know what to do with all those cooking notes? Make a TasteBook!

TasteBook is a site dedicated to helping you organize your recipes, find new recipes and browse the TasteBooks of other users. It integrates with Epicurious, meaning you can bring the recipe box you've been building on Epicurious over to TasteBook, for use in both places. It has a stash of recipes from cooking gurus at Bon Appetit, Gourmet, other magazines and many top chefs for you to browse through.

Users of TasteBook can also add their own recipes. Once your recipes are in the TasteBook database, other users will be able to find them and add them to their own TasteBooks. Once you have created your recipe group and made it into a TasteBook, this site takes recipe swapping to the next level.

What is the point of sorting your recipes into TasteBooks? Once you have them sorted according to the theme of your choice, you can actually purchase a hardcover copy of the TasteBook to put on your kitchen shelf.  Each Tastebook can have up to 100 recipes in it of your choice. 

TasteBook also offers the social aspect of making "friends" who share your taste in cooking. It also adds the social bookmarking aspect of your favorite cooking web sites all in one place. The main thing that keeps TasteBook in the realm of Web 2.0 apps is the fact that you can use the service to sort your recipes for free online - they don't charge you until or unless you want to print an actual TasteBook.

Do I think I will come back and use TasteBook again? Probably not, but that is only because I already have my extensive library of recipes on MacGourmet. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a place online to meet like minded foodies, sort their recipes and possibly print books to keep on their own shelf or give as gifts to others.

How expensive is the actual TasteBook in print? $34.95 is the cost for any TasteBook up to 100 recipes.  If you don't need a 100 recipes in your TasteBook, the extras go on your account as credits. You can use your recipe credits to buy more recipes, which you can have shipped to you as recipe cards formatted to fit in any TasteBook.

I found the site attractive and easy to use overall. I wasn't enamored with the friend finder and social aspects - I thought it could be more comprehensive and offer more opportunities to socialize than it does. The bookmarking, recipe finding and sorting features all work smoothly, allowing you to make full use of you own recipes and those you find online.  

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